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GoCoin Gets Cozy With iGaming Operator

GoCoin today announced its agreement with Cozy Games1, a Malta based iGaming operator which provides a suite of white label products such as slots, bingo, table and networked jackpot games amongst other gambling services for online casino operators. The partnership with GoCoin will enable Cozy Games to accept Bitcoin, Litecoin and Dogecoin deposits.

The press release claims that by most accounts, gambling represents half of all bitcoin transactions yet Cozy Games only see a benefit in exchanging customer deposits into fiat currency so that they need not worry about security, volatility or the complexity of handling customer coins. Unlike other online gambling operators such as BitBet or to a lesser extent News and Score, Cozy Games appear to have missed the point that people betting with bitcoin are looking to wager bitcoin and not fiat currencies.

"By accepting cryptocurrencies through the GoCoin payment platform, regulated online gambling operators can engage new markets like the underbanked that are historically difficult to reach."

said co-founder and CEO of GoCoin, Steve Beauregard.

Unfortunately for Steve Beauregard, the underbanked are difficult to reach simply because they have little money and what little they do have to spend on gambling is unlikely to be deposited by means of using Bitcoin. There are no poor, underbanked people who hold large amounts of bitcoin who refrain from gambling simply because they cannot exchange it for fiat. iGaming is an industry that must adjust to Bitcoin else lose its place in the online gambling sphere. Such a change is also something that doesn't require an intermediary like GoCoin.

Still, it's a step forward and one towards seeing more online gambling operators provide punters with the option to place a wager in bitcoin that pays out in bitcoin. But many of these casino operators are regulated and licensed in places such as Malta and Indian reservations and one wonders if such regulation will cripple their ability to innovate while a new wave of Bitcoin based casinos eat their lunch.

I don't know much about the rules and regulations that govern deposits in these places they operate. Perhaps it is not possible for pre-bitcoin casinos to simply accept bitcoin and provide bitcoin based odds/payouts. If I wanted to gamble at one of these pre-bitcoin venues, I'd use my credit card, not bitcoin.